8 Powerful Automations to Save Time and Grow Your Activity Business

29 min · Olivier Rousseau & William Rochford · Feb 4, 2026

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

YouTube

Amazon Music

About this episode

If you run a gymnastics club, swim school, summer camp, or any activity-based business, your biggest competitor might not be the business down the street. It’s the hours you lose to repetitive admin work. In this episode, Olivier Rousseau and William Rochford walk through eight automations that save time and help you grow: start- and end-of-session reminders, a birthday party workflow, purchase confirmations, smarter waitlists, abandoned cart follow-ups, free trial sequences, and make-up classes. They also share the mindset that makes automation easier to adopt one step at a time.

What we discuss

Why automation matters and how much time it can save Start-of-session reminders End-of-session reminders that drive re-registration A birthday party workflow Automated purchase confirmations Smarter waitlists Abandoned cart follow-ups Free trial class sequences Make-up classes The right mindset for adding automation step by step Resources mentioned How to Build a Parent Communication System That Actually Works Birthday Parties Might Be the Best Marketing Strategy for Sports Clubs Activity Messenger automations Activity Messenger birthday party booking Activity Messenger online registration Book a free demo of Activity Messenger Follow Olivier on LinkedIn About the hosts Olivier Rousseau co-founded Activity Messenger after spending 13 years running a kids' sports program that served 4,000 families. William Rochford is Activity Messenger's product expert. Want to share your story or ask a question? Email olivier@activitymessenger.com.

Full episode transcript

Read the full transcript

Intro[0:00] If you run an activity- based business like a gymnastics club, a swim school, or summer camp, your real competition isn't the business down the street, per se. It's the hours you waste on repetitive tasks. Stop chasing clients. Stop sending endless reminders. Start automating. In this episode, we're breaking down the simple automations. We're going to hit about eight that save time, boost revenue, and keep your clients coming back. So stay tuned. [music] Hey Oli, how you doing today? Pretty good. How are you?[0:36] I'm good. I'm good. I'm glad. I'm excited to be here talking about this subject. I think automation is uh it can feel overwhelming, but it's actually a really exciting topic. So, we hope we're going to make it interesting and we hope that uh you who are listening will have just like if if you come out of this episode with like one two tidbits, it's going to be great. Yeah. So let's start maybe with talkingWhy Automation Matters[1:00] about the benefits of automation. So when we think about automation, we think about saving time. We think about less tasks that we have to do. How much time can we realistically save by doing this? Quite a few hours a week. All depending on which automation you're you're setting up, how large your organization ours is. But the al the other thing too for me is that you're you're taking a boring task very often an important task and a timely task right that needs to be done at the right time with the right information and you're automating it. So the the benefits it's like it's[1:33] something that's much easier for a machine to do than a human because a human can make more mistakes and I think that's where it's important to look at what are the different automations you can do because of that because it can you know reduce the human error and improve the communication with your clients. Absolutely. And a machine, let it be said, is not prone to procrastination. [laughter] True. Very true. And they don't call in sick. They don't call in sick. That's right.[1:56] They're on the clock all the time. All right. So, um, let's start hittingStart-of-Session Reminders[2:01] these points. So, start of session reminders. Why are these important? So, you run services, you want to, you know, people come in for a 10- week session, for example. Uh, it start on start starts on a specific date, but people register many weeks or even months in advance. Sure. Now, what [snorts] do you do a few days before? Right? So, people are starting to ask questions. They they don't know where to go. They're not sure of what time they came in. So, that's where you should automate if you can a a message 5 or 7 days before the session saying,[2:28] "Hey, just a reminder, you know, you're you know, your child is registered for the summer camp. Here's the parent guide. Here's the information on where to be on the first class." And you kind of send it out, you know, the the 5 days before the the time. 5 to 7 days. So, that's enough time for parents to get prepared, get ready. Uh, but it's also not too much time so that they're not uh they don't forget or that email gets buried in their inbox. And that that that will change too. If you're an overnight camp, you might say two weeks in advance might be a good[2:58] good idea because they're coming in for the whole week. But if you're, you know, just a, you know, parent and child kind of dance program, they might not need to prepare so much. So, it might be better to bring it in closer. Absolutely. Awesome. All right. So theEnd-of-Session Reminders[3:11] um the cousin of the start of session reminder would be the end of session reminder. So what's this useful for? Yeah. So I think when you run programs uh and let's say your program ends you know before Christmas on December 15th. What you want to do I think is remind parents when that class is going to end. Um because when you sign up for a session, you you look at okay, it's a 10 week session. I it starts then, but you don't remember. You get busy, life go, you know, there's no way you remember the exact date that it ends and you don't want[3:38] have to go back in your confirmation email and all that. And that's actually a question we used to get a lot just people like when does it end? When does it end? Right? So I recommend what we see people doing is to send an email maybe five, six, seven days before the last day just saying, "Hey, just a reminder, next week is our last class." And parents are going to love that. be like, "Oh, yes." You know, it's just a nice reminder of what it is. And yeah, so it just helps the communication. And then what I like to[4:04] include is a survey because it's a great time to survey your clients as to how they enjoyed the programs. Yep. So you can collect information on how the program went. You also have an interesting opportunity here for your next session. Exactly. Right. So, hey, strike the iron while it's hot. The kid loves the classes. And so here's the form directly if you want to sign up for the next session. Exactly. Registration's open. A nice call to action. Sign up for next[4:30] session. Sign up for the event. Whatever it is. And again from that perspective, what I really like about it too is that you're sending it before the last class. Right. So the person attending the last class is coming in with all this information knowing, you know, they looked at the schedule and then they might go to your coach or to you and be like, "Hey, I saw the schedule for next session. I want to sign up in that class. Is my child ready for that? Uh do you have other classes?" is like just can the brother come like so any questions that they might have[4:56] they're going to be able to do it face to face and that's a much better selling perspective right during that last class um and then when people are asking questions other people are overhearing so I remember when I was giving classes one parent would come and talk be like hey you know when's your you know summer session then I would start talking and then three four parents like what you guys okay what and they're listening to kind of be able to register so there's this huge value of like telling them in advance so they can come to you and have a a one-on-one one[5:22] conversation. Yeah, absolutely. And then parents who didn't know that the registrations were open were like, "Hey, check your email." Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. And these are automations that actually in a sense like cuz again we were talking earlier like about automation, AI, all that kind of stuff, but these automations are just really time-sensitive and in in information-rich automations that are going to take weight off your shoulders. And then because you don't have to think about all these things you[5:49] have to send and say because it was sent in the automation, you can have a much easier conversation with your your people, your staff or your clients when they're there in person. And that has a really big impact, too. Yeah. Absolutely. And that's one less task because that parent who got their answer in person didn't write you an email. Exactly. So, win-win. Yeah. All right. So, we're going to uh shiftBirthday Party Workflow[6:11] completely going left field here. We're talking about birthday parties because activity based businesses, you know, uh jungle gyms, gymnastic places, um there's often opportunities for having birthday parties there. And the birthday party process is is quite heavy in terms of organization and we can even talk about how to market that. So there's like two levels of automation. Yeah. And I think the first one is how do you get more birthday parties, right? If that's what you're looking for. Um, and a lot of times people will have, you[6:42] know, posters in the gym. They'll tell their clients, they'll have it in their newslet, their monthly newsletter. One thing we've seen clients use as an automation is a birthday marketing automation, which is tied to the child's date of birth. So, say you have a 5-year-old that his uh, you know, the child's birthday is in 2 months. Well, you want a system that can automate a marketing email 2 months in advance or 6 weeks in advance to the parent saying, "Hey, Johnny's birthday is coming up in a few weeks. Have you thought of the party? Here's our [snorts] offer. Right.[7:13] Right. So, the system is always scanning the participant and we have their birthdays because as part of the activity, that's part of the questions about the participant. And so, now we have a system that's scraping all the birthdays and saying, "Oh, well, I'm going to send one to here because it's in 2 months." Exactly. And then the cool part about the parent for that is that the parent is either thinking about it or should be thinking about, you know, what are we doing on for for that child's birthday? and you already have a leg up because[7:39] they know your services are good, right? You're giving great classes, so they're already part of your client, so you already have a leg up, but you don't want you want to be the first top of mind as well with that email being like, "Oh, wow. Yeah, let's do it." So, that simple automation depending on how your big your your um programs are, your activity center is can have a massive impact on the amount of birthdays you will be doing in the next few months just because it's kind of an ongoing automation that keeps going out. Sure. and you're already paying rent for[8:06] your space. So, that's just like money in the pocket and two months. Why is like 6 to 8 weeks a good time period for that reminder? I completely made that up my mind. I just thought of it as on my end um on just kind of, you know, if I were to set up, you know, a child's birthday, how how f how quickly do I want to start thinking about it, right? And because your service is such a big part of the birthday, it's basically the birthday, right? There's all the invitations, all the cake after, but the first thing you need to do is find a[8:34] location for the birthday, right? So, you don't want to be Yeah. Like, you know, if it's two weeks in advance, you might be thinking about the party, the the cakes, the all that stuff. But that's something that's like you want in advance. You want to make sure you have the right time as well cuz birthdays get booked. So, I feel like that's a good time. But that that I think you know your clients, whoever is listening, you know, when's the best time is is more for sure. But yeah, so I'm thinking about it like I think it's a good idea, too,[8:55] because like how cool for the parent. the parents thinking about a thousand things, you know, and and so now they get this reminder like, "What a great idea. My kid loves that place. What a great idea to have a birthday party there." And now they're making it super easy for me. Exactly. Amazing. And talking about making it easy, the other automation that comes in is that once you book that birthday, what happens after that? Organization piece.[9:17] Organization. And you want to be able to automatically send a an email to that parent with a nice designed in Canva, you know, invitation. and a RSVP, right? So that parent can take that email, send it to 15, 20 people they want to invite to the birthday, and then every single person gets it, clicks on the RSVP, and then they can sign the waiver right away. So you're not collecting waivers on the day of, which is an awful thing to do and something you don't want to be doing in at the front desk signing paper waivers. So, and then at the same time, that[9:51] automation will allow you to add them to an attendance list so that you know how many kids are coming and you know who signed the waiver beforehand. Um, and it just makes that that so much easier. And you're also getting those contacts in your system. Exactly. Which is which is massive because then you can do a post another automation, a post birthday automation kind of saying, "Hey, you guys love the birthday." That's a bonus for you. That was not planned. Yeah. like you want two days later[10:15] here's a here's a you know an email saying you know here's a 10% discount for a session right so I think that's really nice and the other thing that that whole thing does is I think it creates excitement and anticipation for the birthday because you want the parent who send those emails to have access to that attendance list and see as people come in who confirmed their presence and then they can share with their kid hey look this person's coming this person's confirmed and it and then you know at the last minute you know send another email saying hey you haven't confirmed[10:42] it are you going to be able to come Right. So, I think there's there's all these things and and it's, you know, um well, even if it's a very simple birthday party, it's very stressful for a parent that day. Sure. So, if you can give them a service that's more than just the activity on the day of and they feel like you've taken some burden off their shoulder, what a what an what an awesome You've helped them communicate with their guests and you've helped them so now they can concentrate on, you know,[11:06] maybe they want to bring some things to the the party. you talk about birthday cake uh you know so all those little tiny things and there's a hundred things to think about with a birthday party so yeah removing that burden from their shoulders is huge and what a what a great service you know um so that's awesome and if you want to know more about that there'll be some links in the show notes and uh we'll be happy to help you out with that if ever you need to set that up in in your organizationAutomated Purchase Confirmation[11:32] um all right so next topic purchase confirmation automation so this is like a pretty standard Yeah. thing. But there's a few things to think about here. Yeah. Yeah. And I think like if you if your software does not allow that like running like you need you know when you buy switch softwares now I mean yesterday. Yeah. When you buy when you buy something usually you get a confirmation email with invoice right and that's very standard. So I don't think any software[11:56] is necessarily you know better than another for that. It's a very standard email but it's a missed opportunity a lot of times because that email has an open rate of 80 to 90%. Which is gigantic. Gigantic. And like we're used to getting those so we're used to clicking on it. Sure. Just maybe, you know, downloading the invoice, making sure that we charge. Well, so you have your your your new client's attention. Yep.[12:16] So, it should not just be, you know, here's what you bought, here's the invoice. What can we add on top of that, right? Can we add a welcome video? Can we add details on what are the next steps? So, hey, you just purchased two weeks before the activity. We'll send you a more complete email with all the details about your summer camp, right? Or we're going to have this, you know, Zoom meeting with all the parents on this date, right? So, uh, or even blog articles about, you know, how to prepare your your child for their first summer at camp or things like that, right? Just[12:43] reassuring the parent that they made the right decision and giving them tools to be even more ready and you know, removing the like kind of post-purchase buyer remorse, right, where they're like, did I make the right decision? Well, if you can kind of like get those people who might be a bit more anxious about their their their decision to be like, wow, they just gave me such a nice confirmation email with so much information. I feel like that just kind of reassures the client and it's just it's going to it's going to lower your support as well.[13:09] Yeah. So, we got a great opportunity to added value what to expect, frequently asked questions and also if for example your activity comes with, I don't know, a uniform or uh maybe it's a tennis activity and you're selling tennis rackets, tennis balls. Well, what a great opportunity also to offer them uh you know a deal or simply an opportunity to buy those things and then they arrive first day of class. Boom. Here's your package. Yeah. And even like if here's a link to our online store. That's great. Or here's a link to our events coming up.[13:42] You might cross-selling something else, right? You might have an event coming up. You're selling sessions, but you want to sell tickets for this event. Why not add in that confirmation email? They just purchased with you, right? So there's there's a lot of use cases. So, we don't want to see any more of these confirmation purchase emails that are like, "Yeah, thank you for purchasing. Here's your receipt." Yeah. Excuse me. [laughter][13:59] Exactly.Promotional Content[14:00] Great. All right. So, we got rid of that. This episode is sponsored by Activity Messenger, an online registration software I helped build. After spending more than a decade managing kids sports programs and dealing with outdated, disconnected tools that slow everything down, I know the frustration of using a bunch of old tools that don't sync, don't scale, and definitely don't make life easier. Activity Messenger is built to fix that. Our goal is to be your all-in-one operating system, modern, mobile first, and to simplify your[14:31] entire workflow. Want to check it out? Visit activitymessenger.com to book your free demo. Now, let's get back to the show. [music]Smarter Waitlists[14:39] Um, all right. So, let's talk about waitlists. We can automate waitlist. This is pretty standard thing from what I understand. Um, where's what's the opportunity here? What what can we do here? Yeah, I think the big opportunity is that most software will have a waitlist automation. Um, I think there are a few things that are important in today's day and age is that I really like every automation I just spoke about was all email. Right now, we're going to shift a little for the waitlist. I really believe that should be sent by[15:05] text. Right. Because the intent behind the person being added to a wait list is like, I want to purchase this. I would have purchased it, but I couldn't. Yeah. And there's an urgency when it's bought. There's an urgency. And the other thing, too, is like one of the biggest frustrations I've had in the past was that the the s the the email that was sent to the parent could get missed. We all miss emails. they go into spam for whatever reason and then that [clears throat] parent sees it, you[15:29] know, after that 24-hour delay and they're like, I wanted that spot and now they're mad and now they're mad, right? So, that's one thing. And imagine there's only one person on the wait list and they missed the email and they really wanted to give you $200 and because of a missed email, you now have an open spot and you just lost, you know, 200 bucks on that registration. Now, multiply that by twice a month, we're talking about a few thousand sure of pure profit that you're lacking just because of the way you sent the[15:54] automation. not only if it was the only change there is SMS or email, right? So I feel like that's that's a massive massive kind of thing that you need to think about when you're thinking about waitlist, right? So the opportunity to send an SMS waitlist and that gives also the parent the opportunity to either immediately fill out the form or even say no and then that moves on to the next person. And that that's the other missed opportunity. And if I and a text message, we usually[16:21] answer those within the hour we receive them. Most people do. Exactly. So, if you're giving a a text message, people will see it right right away. They can take the spot right away, which is really nice, but they can also say, I'm I don't no longer want the spot, right? And what happens is it sends a text to the next person. There you go. And you were saying earlier, it's time-sensitive. So, maybe the spot opens up 3 days before.[16:42] You don't have that much time to go find another client, right? So, it's really important. And even if you only have one person on the wait list and they say no, well, that's going to open up to the general public, right? in instead of waiting 24 hours because they didn't want it and they weren't able because maybe in your system you can't say no, then it's 24 48 hours where it's like you the person doesn't want it, but you have to still wait that time cuz they didn't tell you they don't want it before it opens up to everybody else.[17:04] Right. So there's all these missed opportunities by just having it by email instead of SMS cuz email is too slow. Exactly. And unread. And unread, you know, like I mean open rates for for text is like 98%. Emails, you know, can go down up to 20 30%. So absolutely and we mentioned this last episode too, but the other great thing uh to think about in the in terms of an SMS waitlist automation is that that form being mobile first is a game changer because then the person[17:35] can click on the link, fill out the form immediately on the phone. The experience is seamless and enjoyable. Yeah, great. All right, we've taken care of that. [laughter]Abandoned Cart Follow-Up[17:47] All right. So, abandoned cart retargeting. So, this is something we see all the time in like e-commerce. How many times have you received an email like, "Hey, you forgot something." Yeah. No, I didn't. I just didn't want it. [laughter] So, we're used to seeing in e-commerce, but why is it so important in activity- based? Um, I mean, personally, personally, I I actually don't enjoy those reminders of cart abandonment that much when it's a product, right? But I enjoy it a lot for service. And[18:13] the reason behind that is that if I'm if I went all the way in that depth of like getting to payment for a service, chances are I stopped because maybe I didn't have my credit card, maybe I didn't talk to my wife, maybe I need to see does the Thursday class work? Oh, I'm not sure. I got to, you know, call another activity or call or see is it the school like when we So there's so many maybe my kids having a hissy fit on the floor. Exactly. And there's so many more reasons to abandon and it's a long[18:38] process like it's a longer cart. Yeah. signing up for, you know, buying, you know, a tennis ball online or signing up for your child for camp. It's a much longer process. So, if you can automate a reminder when they abandon that cart and they can click on that link and come right back where they were, like that's another thing. Pick up where you left off like Yeah. Just restarting a whole when you have a lot of questions. Yeah. Now, it's like you just click it at the right spot and then you just put your[19:00] credit card in. What that does is that it's going to help you increase revenue, but it's an excellent service to to give to the parents. And even if they don't come back because they they decided not to [snorts] take it, like I wouldn't send them texts and I wouldn't send like a seven email sequence. I would just really keep it at, you know, maybe two, three days after, here's a little nudge. Hey, you know, here it is. You you want you still want the spot. Uh and like you said, parents are so busy. We are in all these activities.[19:26] There's many reasons why we might abandon the cart. So feel like that's a great way of like nudging people back in. And you know, we're service based. We're repeat businesses. So if you get that one client there and then next session they bring their friend and the session after that the smaller brother's there and they do like you know 10 sessions you know that little email doesn't just come back with $200 it might come back with a few thousand dollar over the lifetime of the client. That lifetime value is very hard to um[19:50] to calculate. Yeah. Yeah. Um great. So uh and that's something that's going to come up again. you mentioned how it's a service and I just want to bring that up now because in all of these different automations that we're mentioning the the aspect of client service is so important. Sometimes we're afraid like oh if we automate everything it's going to sound like a robot things like that. Some people have you know uh some resistance to automating emails and[20:16] stuff like that but you got to think about it as like you're actually humanizing your service. you're removing a whole bunch of tasks from yourself and there's only so much that you can do as a human [clears throat] being, as one individual or even as a team and a team is expensive. A system is a lot less costly. A system doesn't take breaks and doesn't procrastinate. I think we we we said that earlier, didn't we? So anyway, uh the service aspect here is something I I really want uh people to to take away. All right, so let's move on to um the uhFree Trial Classes[20:44] the free trial. We can call it a drip drip sequence, but basically like how do we organize an automation around a free trial class? Yeah. Before and after. I think first of all, you got to start with a form, right? You want people to come in for a free trial, not have to call in and just be able to sign up for a form in a specific date. Sure. Uh but then from there, what's really important is you want people to show up on that free trial. And because it's free, chances are not everybody's going[21:09] to show up. And that's to be expected. Y. Now, what you want to be able to do is automate maybe 24 hours before a reminder saying, "Hey, you signed up for this free trial. It's coming up at this date at this time. You know, here's where the parking is." Just giving them the details they need to actually show up to that to that free trial, right? Once they're there, it's on you. You give the best service. You know, you can child is happy. Uh they had a great time. Uh but then, you know, maybe you have a a Thursday class and right after they're going for dinner with friends,[21:37] right? And they're going to forget what happened. Sure. Right. So, you're going to want to automate a reminder after the free trial, just saying, "Hey, hope you enjoyed your time. Here's the link to sign up. Here's what we're going to be doing this session." Just kind of building out a really nice email. They might have not had time to talk to the coach as well about the programs. And it just kind of gives them like a nudge to go and register, not just on the day of the free trial, but you know, after when[22:01] a lot of times makes more sense to sign up, you know, on a on a on a Tuesday afternoon than to sign up on a Saturday, you know, weekend when there's so many so many things going on, right? Yeah. Absolutely. So you catch them while they have some downtime and again your auto your email just went out. You don't even have to think about this and they're happy they enjoyed the activity or they didn't and they don't sign up but at least they they got the reminder and and I think it's important to segment as well. So you want a system[22:25] that can automatically segment who was there and who wasn't. Right. So as you take attendance Yes. Right. the email that's going to go out to somebody who did was unable to show up is very different. It's a huge piece and they should get an email saying hey you missed us, you know, we missed you this weekend. No problem. Here's a link to book another free trial, right? I feel like you want to give at least a second chance because there's so many reasons. I mean, people miss paid classes, so[22:47] they're going to miss free ones, right? So, yep. Life life happens. Life happens. Also, that's a great segue. So, peopleMake-Up Classes[22:54] miss free classes. Obviously, they didn't pay. There's nothing really holding them to it. But people, surprisingly enough, miss a lot of uh paid classes as well. So, um not everybody offers this, but there's some really good opportunity. And again, we're on the theme of serving your customer. Uh going above and beyond. And so makeup classes are really interesting, but often times it's really like complex organizing that there's a lot of pieces. How can automation help us there? Yeah. So when I was running, you know,[23:23] kids activity business, like I I didn't like to offer makeup classes because they were so complex, right? Like I can't be there. I got to go there. Then you bust your ratios and all that kind of stuff. Um, so you know, we would it would it was it was done manually, but we'd try to say no and but it was tough cuz I was like I would love to like I know I have spots on in this other class like why don't you go right but I just don't want to take all the intake and the back and forth of getting parents to the right I can't that Sunday finally all that stuff. So[23:51] the way you can automate it is that you can create very clear guidelines saying hey we have a makeup system right but you need to cancel let's say 24 hours before or 8 hours before right or else you cannot make a makeup so you can't come up half an hour before and and cancel the class and the reason being is that when you do it in advance you're opening up a spot for somebody else to take their makeup and the system has to work in that way. Right. Right. Because your attendance list needs to stay your max attendance can't be busted.[24:17] Exactly. And [laughter] so, but what's interesting is if you're able to go in and say, "Here are the clear guidelines we have. You have to cancel this, you know, 8 hours before and then we'll give you a kind of a free trial makeup coupon that you can then go apply somewhere else." Um, that really really helps the client be like in control. You have nothing to do. You set the clear guidelines and then you as a parent can be like, I want to sign up for this this program, but I'm going to be away for work whatever for two weeks and I[24:46] won't be able to make it. Well, you can go cancel those two classes and make those two makeups, you know, go twice a week for two weeks and then you feel like you got all the money. You know, you paid for 10 weeks while you actually went 10 weeks, right? Yeah. But the thing is I don't think organizations if they can't automate it should take on that responsibility even though it's huge value for the client because it just it's never ending if it's not automated. It could be a cost sink for sure.[25:13] Exactly. Um, but what a what a plus, you know, and I think I think it's worth talking about how especially in this economy, people are so tight and activities are expensive, you know, most of the time it's it's something that it's a good part of the budget. And so that could really be a factor if someone's like, but you know, what if my kid's sick? What if I can't make it? I'm going to lose like whatever 30 $40 for a class. So just having that could be the game changer of someone choosing your organization versus someone else.[25:40] That's another Absolutely. It's a very good point. Totally. All right. So that uh that was our eight points. We did it. [laughter] Yes. And maybe as a sort of word to to end this whole thing.Mindset for Automation[25:52] Um you know I think people can hear us talk about all these different things and I hope I hope you guys found some value in there. I hope you guys found some good ideas but maybe implementation feels a little bit intimidating. Yeah. you know. Um, so what are some of the maybe the final words that you can offer in terms of advice and especially in terms of maybe mind shift, how to think about automating your business more and more. Yeah, I think I think what you want to do is look at your processes and and the software and what you're what you're[26:22] currently doing, right? And then be like, okay, what's what's the highest value? So, what automation could bring in the most value? And the value will be different because I have organizations that are at max capacity. So for them an an abandoned cart retargeting I'm at max capacity already. I have a waitlist you know after after waitlist but I need to communicate with my clients. So maybe the waitlist automation is the first one or maybe it's the start of session one right. So what's what's tedious right now? What's manual? What's difficult right now that you want to[26:49] remove from yourself and that can be automated within your guidelines. Um so I think that's kind of the first one you want to look at and not trying to do them all at the same time. Like if you if not use if you're not doing any of these eight and you're like tomorrow morning I want to do all eight. I'm not sure. But then on the other end, if your clients are not asking that many questions, but you're like, "Hey, I'd love to boost my revenue, well, maybe start with that birthday party automation or that, you know, abandoned cart." So, I think the where you want to[27:13] go first is the most important. And then it's looking at how to do it. And it's having the conversation with your team as well. What do you what are you doing? What do you not like doing that's very tedious and manual? Yeah. Cuz like that's another you can retain staff because of that. Interesting. Like in a sense like if they're spending 10 hours a week on something they absolutely hate because that you could automate it and then you're like I'm going to remove that and[27:35] I'm going to ask you to do this and this that you like better like that staff might actually stay longer because those frustrating we all everybody at work has those hours of work that you don't like doing. Um so if you're able to automate some of it and be like wow but not only that those automations are going to create a better communication with the client. So maybe you get less angry clients. Less angry. And then that person behind the the the front desk is like, you know what, that automation is fun. I'm happy. I I have a[28:00] better time. Our clients are in such a good mood. We have the best clients in the world. Yeah. [laughter] That that we won't guarantee, though. But you know, you got you got to put the odds on your side. Exactly. That's how it goes. All right. So, step-by-step implementation based on what's going to give you really basically the most bang for your buck. Exactly. Is is really the way to go about this. So, you do it one, you know, one step at a time. you're you're delegating more and more things to the machine. And like[28:25] I said, the machine is actually humanizing your business because it's removing those mundane tasks that you would do otherwise. And those emails that you send out, it's it's your words. You've written them. You've taken the time in moments where you're not rushed to uh you know to to to organize the classes to put everything you know you've you've taken the time. you've written those and you've thought about the client journey and so everything can be really really smooth once all this is uh up and running. Absolutely.[28:51] So, we hope you got at least one or twoOutro[28:53] really good pieces of value from this podcast and uh let us know in the comments below what you liked, what you came out as like your the best idea in this podcast and we are looking forward to see you in the next episode. See you later Oli. Thanks Will. Bye bye.

Keep listening

Birthday Parties Might Be the Best Marketing Strategy for Sports Clubs

24 min · Olivier Rousseau & William Rochford · Jun 9, 2026

The Real Problem With Mailchimp for Sports & Leisure

21 min · Olivier Rousseau & William Rochford · May 26, 2026

Why Google Forms Doesn’t Work for Sports Registrations

25 min · Olivier Rousseau & William Rochford · May 12, 2026

See what we're working on at Activity Messenger

Get our product newsletter to see our latest features and learn how they can help your sports club, camp, or leisure organization!